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Merry Men
The Merry Men is a group of characters featured on ABC's Once Upon a Time and Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. They début in the nineteenth episode of the second season of Once Upon a Time. History As a petty thief, Robin Hood steals a horse from a farmer, although he already has two horses of his own. Camping for the night, he awakens to find the farmer's daughter, Marian, threatening him with an arrow. After explaining how much her poor family depends on the horse for survival, she takes off. Realizing the error of his ways, Robin Hood returns to Marian's cottage the next morning and forfeits his two horses to her. Changed by her, he decides never to steal from the poor again, and to only take from the rich to give to the needy. Mutually, Marian and Robin Hood fall in love, and she gives up everything in order to be with him. The band of Merry Men, comprised of several men, including Friar Tuck and Little John, are led by their leader, Robin Hood, into looting money from a wealthy man's carriage. Without the group's notice, a lone man, Will Scarlet, nabs a chest of treasures, which he later brings to the Merry Men's camp to prove himself worthy enough of joining their entourage, to which Robin Hood accepts him as a new member. Will suggests the next location the Merry Men can hope to gain many riches—namely the castle of the witch Maleficent, who is currently away. Robin Hood dislikes the danger involved, but he agrees so they can pilfer enough gold to feed villagers. Unbeknownst to the Merry Men, Will's intentions at the location are to find a looking glass from Maleficent's castle. Sometime before or after this, Will meets Marian and asks her why she chose to give up everything to be with the man she loves. She states her belief that Robin Hood has good in him, and because true love is worth fighting for. Upon entering the grounds of Maleficent's castle, Robin Hood instructs his comrades to only take the gold, though Will secretly steals the looking glass. When the Merry Men return to camp for celebrating, Maleficent's voice demands a missing item to be returned or suffer the consequences. Despite that Robin Hood calls the traitor out, Will does not. During the night, Robin Hood realizes Will's deceptive behavior and confronts him as he is sneaking off. Guiltily, Will hints his reason for stealing is because of a woman. Rather than deal out punishment, Robin Hood allows Will to leave as he believes his retribution will come in the future. Although the Sheriff of Nottingham is in love with Marian, she chooses to run away with Robin Hood. Ever since then, the Sheriff, driven by both jealousy and rage, makes it his mission to hunt down Robin Hood, but the thief continues to elude capture. While Marian is heavily pregnant with child, Robin Hood risks his life to steal a healing wand from the castle of the greatly feared Dark One, Rumplestiltskin, he is captured and tortured continuously. Pitying his fate, Rumplestiltskin's maid, Belle, frees him. Afterwards, Robin Hood flees with the wand while Rumplestiltskin furiously discovers his prisoner is gone and plans to kill him. With the wand, Robin Hood heals Marian and as the two have a joyous reunion, Belle convinces Rumplestiltskin to let the thief live so the couple's unborn child won't grow up without a father. Reminded of how he made his own child fatherless, Rumplestiltskin allows his aimed arrow to hit the carriage instead; startling Robin Hood and Marian so much that they rush off on horseback. After Marian gives birth to a son, Roland, she and Robin Hood raise him together within the Merry Men group. Learning the whereabouts of the wanted bandit, Snow White, Marian is caught by the Evil Queen, but she refuses to divulge anything. For her noncompliance, the Queen sentences the woman to execution. The events after this are not known, but Robin Hood blames himself for his wife's death by having "putting her in harm's way during the job". Friar Tuck, seeing his leader unable to move on from Marian's passing, suggests ingesting night root, however, Robin Hood refuses to use magic to solve his problems. With the casting of the curse, the Evil Queen sends herself and other Enchanted Forest inhabitants to a cursed town in another realm. Due to a barrier created by Cora over some parts of the Enchanted Forest, many remain unaffected by the Queen's curse; including the Merry Men of Sherwood Forest. However, they become frozen for twenty-eight years until the savior breaks the curse. }} Believing Emma is in danger, Neal causes a ruckus while searching for an item to reach Neverland. Concerned by the noise, Little John and several other Merry Men burst in to defend Robin Hood, but they back down once reassured by their leader that Mulan and Neal are not enemies. From under Little John's feet, Robin Hood's son, Roland, rushes into his father's arms. This sparks inspiration in Neal, who wants to use the boy to summon the Shadow from Neverland, though Robin Hood objects once he learns the creature is known for kidnapping children. Undeterred, Neal brings up how his father saved Robin Hood's wife, which allowed her to give birth to Roland, and as such, this makes him in Rumplestiltskin's debt. Robin Hood relents and allows one opportunity for summoning the Shadow. As he, Mulan and Neal hold their attacking positions, Roland says the incantation, "I believe". Though nothing occurs at first, the Shadow soon arrives to snatch away Roland, but Mulan intervenes by cutting off the creature's arm. Neal then hitches a ride to Neverland by grabbing onto the Shadow. Afterwards, Robin Hood expresses an interest for Mulan to join the Merry Men, but she declines and leaves to take care of another matter instead. At nightfall, Robin Hood and his group camp-out when Mulan arrives to join the Merry Men. }} As they make way for Sherwood Forest, Regina proposes to Prince Charming and Snow White that she sneak into the palace through an underground tunnel and bring down the barrier blocking them from going in. Suddenly, the same winged creature that attacked before returns to swoop down on Regina. Since Roland is nearby, the boy mistakenly believes the animal is after him and distressingly calls for his father, who is too far away to rescue his son. With a wave of magic, Regina protects Roland by transforming the beast into a stuffed toy, which she gifts him. In gratitude, Robin Hood repays Regina kindness by accompanying her into the palace. As the pair walk into a tunnel, he talks about his wife's death. They find the underground vault, that she had sealed with blood magic, to be strangely open. Inside, Regina briefly reminisces over losing her son, Henry and she secretly brews a sleeping curse in the hopes he can wake her up with true love's kiss one day. Robin Hood, immobilized by magic, tries to talk her out of it, but she ignores his reasoning. When the castle's claimer, the Wicked Witch, intervenes and announces her intentions of getting revenge on Regina, the Queen decides she will live for the sake of destroying her new nemesis. With the barrier broken and the Wicked Witch elsewhere, everyone assembles into the castle. For Robin Hood's assistance, Regina gives him golden-tipped arrows. Having recently discovered Snow White is pregnant, Prince Charming dreads being a bad father since losing his first child, Emma. He relates his dilemma to Robin Hood, and the Merry Man suggests getting rid of his fears by ingesting a magic plant called night root. Although Prince Charming takes the advice, he later owns up to his worries by talking to Snow White. After learning from Belle of Rumplestiltskin's resurrection at the cost of Neal's life, Snow White finds herself under threat by the Wicked Witch Zelena, who is conspiring to steal her unborn child. In a round table discussion, Robin Hood is included as everyone discusses how to counter the Wicked Witch. Regina disapproves of his presence on the council, but he strongly believes his help is needed. Deciding Rumplestiltskin can provide a solution, the group attempt to a break-in at his castle. Before Regina can use magic on the sealed entrance, Robin Hood fires an arrow to trigger a trap explosion. Inside, Rumplestiltskin leads them to the banished Good Witch of the South, Glinda, who provides answers to Snow White and Prince Charming of Zelena's weakness—light magic—a criteria Emma fits. In secret, Snow White casts another curse to reach Emma, but before it takes effect, Zelena drops a potion into the mixture to erase everyone's memories of the last year in the Enchanted Forest. Of the many affected, the Merry Men are whisked off to Storybrooke. }} Known Merry Men *Friar Tuck/Friar Tuck *Little John/Little John *Maid Marian *Robin Hood/Robin Hood *Roland/Roland *Knave of Hearts/Will Scarlet *Mulan Appearances Note: "Archive" denotes archive footage. *Various Merry Men appear in Henry's storybookin "A Tale of Two Sisters" and "The Snow Queen". *Merry Man Robin Hood appears in Henry's storybook in "Smash the Mirror" and "Darkness on the Edge of Town". References Category:Male Characters Category:Female Characters Category:Season Two Characters Category:Season Three Characters Category:Once Upon a Time Characters Category:Once Upon a Time in Wonderland Characters Category:Season Four Characters